president putin says america's human rights record. others as moscow responds to washington's decision to sanction russian diplomats. new dramatic leaks of a political career during the sun set to outline his plans in a christmas address in a safe london embassy. time magazine names barack obama personally for a second time critics say the u.s. president needs to take stronger action to issues such as gun control.

around the world and around the clock twenty four hours a day this is r.t. but he slammed america's human rights record citing indefinite detention and sanctioned torture overseas prisons speaking to journalists the president also defended moscow's response to washington's decision to sanction russian officials. going off listen to what president putin had to say. the president slammed the monied ski act passed recently by american lawmakers saying that it's a continuation of a series of anti russian laws like the jackson veni guy act which was abolished recently and putin says that the us is a country which is still uses prisons like i will graber guantanamo where that's why legions of human rights have been on a daily basis has no rights to criticize the human rights situation in russia. our

us are partners and their lawmakers say they are concerned about human rights in our prisons and that's fine of course but there are plenty of issues they have themselves abu ghraib and guantanamo where for years people have been detained without charge it's inconceivable to go to the prisoners walk around in chains like in the middle ages legalize torture inside their own country if something like that happened here it would cause an international outcry and all remains quiet in the us we've heard plenty of promises to close guantanamo but it's still there it's still operating maybe there is still torture going on there is no secret cia prisons has anyone been brought to account and they're pointing out is our problems well thank you who are aware of that making this the ground for passing anti russian laws it's something else sir and we have a no way provoked such action russian lawmakers are currently working on what they

say will be a proportionate response to the money ski act and part of the plan is to introduce a ban for americans to adopt russian children this has been causing quite a lot of debate in russia and the president has commented on that saying that adoption and the problem with it is that it's not even the cases of abuse of russian children adopted by american foster parents of but the lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to prevent them from reoccurring including the lack of serious punishments in light of the end. government protests which have been continuing for around a year now the president was also asked a question implying that he's managed to build an author retain a regime in the country during his time in power let's listen to the president's reply maybe speech it was almost a b. i believe that we've provided stability which is the perec was it for the development of our country i believe it's a very important thing but i wouldn't call it authoritarian i can't agree with such

an opinion but the most prominent example that proves my point was my decision to take to the sidelines after two terms as president if i thought that to tell a tarion or authoritarian systems would be the most preferable for our country i just changed the constitution another issue touched upon at the conference was russia's stance on the carpet in syria the president stressed once again that moscow does not support president assad's regime but it also doesn't want to see syria drown in care us in a civil war for the next two years you know which it says it's only up to the syrian people to decide what sort of a political future they want and who they want to see in control of their country you know we are not concerned about the faith of assad's regime we understand what's going on there the family has been in power for forty years and undoubtedly there's demand for change but we're concerned about what happens next in the

country we just don't want ongoing strife between today's opposition if it takes power and the current government if they become the opposition this can't go on forever now on a lighter note putin has also denied speculation that he's been experiencing some problems with his health and has also answered a question which is bothering millions of people right now about the end of the world well the russian president says he knows when the world will end according to him it will happen in a few billion years one of the sun stop shining some of these are some of the more so. serious issues touched upon the conference which lasted around four and a half hours continuing the president's tradition of these extended. and included over twelve hundred journalists from different parts of russia and from abroad. our man on the frontline of the information battle of wiki leaks heritage in the sun is to give a christmas address and deliver his speech from the balcony of the ecuadorian

embassy in london where he's been ensconced six months now after being granted political asylum there well there's much anticipation as to what assad will say laura smith reports now on the possible topics for his address. later on thursday julian assange is doing something which is usually reserved for heads of state queens the pope people like that he's giving a christmas message from the balcony of the ecuadorian embassy where he's been holed up for the last six months and in fact this speech will mark his six month anniversary inside the ecuadorian embassy now the last time in assad appeared in public it was back in august and he organized a kind of a rally around the embassy so speeches by politicians and other supporters as a kind of a carnival atmosphere with balloons and all that kind of thing and then he came on and made his speech and he made a couple of important points one of which was to urge the u.s.

to end what he calls the witch hunt against wiki leaks and he also called for the release of bradley manning who's of course being held. on trial in the u.s. accused of leaking classified documents to wiki leaks so those are two things that he may mention again when he talks later on thursday he also may talk about his most recent visit to run for the senate in the two thousand and thirteen australian federal elections he's made that announcement and he's said that wiki leaks is setting up a political party for which plans are significantly advanced and they have received significant support from notable australians he says that that party is designed to promote openness in government and politics and also to combat a growing intrusions on individual privacy one of the things i learnt during the interview that he gave me a couple of weeks ago was that julian assad is increasingly unwilling to talk about

his personal situation he prefers to stick to the wider issues and so that is why one of the things he may talk about could be the continuing blockade of wiki leaks by a visa master card and pay pal that's a case that's ongoing at the moment and also a possible further leak that he mentioned to me they're talking about leaking more documents in the new year watch this space he said. there well the battle for transparency has long been a struggle for wiki leaks with the ongoing investigation in the us and the block on donations by credit card companies but as a spokesperson for the whistle blowing web site kristinn hrafnsson told r.t. the fight will continue. well we know about the ongoing. investigation the secret grand jury you know sandra and junior there is. an ongoing attempt to find an angle to bring charges against julian and possibly all those working for with

police is a very serious matter of course very shameful for the obama administration not to stop that for the man who was right even taken four years ago to increase transparency and what we have seen is. the opposite witch hunt against whistleblowers. history will continue our work as we have done despite the difficult situation that has been in the ecuadorian embassy you know for six months but probably it was the house arrest that hasn't stopped us we have continued to work. the economic blockade has not stopped us either even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that's our battle that we have decided to we're told it will all out war and i'm sure we'll have a victory there as well in the new year. coming up israel ignores calls from western powers by pressing ahead with plans to build more settlements in occupied territory examine tel aviv define construction plans in the west bank

a little later in the program. to loan you greece to hold a referendum on breaking away from spain despite madrid the value to stop the region from going to follow that's all after the break. looking at some dogs you simply do not believe they can speak and goodness how they can wrong oh oh it's an international sled dog race with those driving the dogs. coming from as far away as australia canada. and the us i come to russia and everybody is so very friendly they welcomed me with open arms and the scenery is so beautiful it's very much like a lot and so i felt at home the first lead dog was brought here from australia and

now it's really has come to this remote russian village to take part in the race it's not surprising they love it this trail are amazing but even more amazing is the story of how racing first started here at all it wasn't the tough mushers of sled dog racing who set the trail ablaze but a nun and for all friends who brought their idea to life five years ago mother put us care of a bill to dog kennel in the village kids from the local open it came around to take care of the dogs and one day they state their lives might seem extreme to some the boys wake up at six to feed the dogs before school in the evening they spend up to three hours training their four legged friends but smother her scare also encourages her kids to become depth hands on the computer and internet the boys who regularly update their website and they're in touch with their busy mother twenty four seven on the phone. but children are the most important thing my only interest

is not playing any rule any more and regardless of whether parsky has huskies win the race or not she hopes the competition will take place in the village next year . but called these dogs and the children it really is not the winning but truly just the taking part that counts. oh you're watching r t live from moscow kerry johnston the u.k. has revealed the staggering cost of its involvement in the war in afghanistan more than seventeen billion pounds and as britain prepares to withdraw its troops the defense secretary there says the final price tag could be around twenty billion of

this as the country continues with domestic public spending cuts and efforts to reduce its budget deficit will live now to our tea party boy she joins us from london with more on this so polly with austerity at home the u.k. government still finds money for wars. indeed yes seventeen billion pounds the british government has just revealed that that's been the cost of that so far eleven year war in afghanistan now it was a very deal at the same time as a clear timetable was announced for troop withdrawal from the region we're going to have u.k. troops slashed by about a half by the end of next year down to five thousand two hundred and then another large chunks of troops are leaving by the end of twenty fourteen but it's those seventeen billion pounds that are being spent that have been spent on it for the war on top of the existing defense budget which means the estimates for the final price tag for the afghan war might be something around twenty billion pounds and of

course the u.k. is going to keep sending money to afghanistan after twenty fourteen they're going to be sending something like seventeen million pounds for aid towards the afghan national security forces after twenty fourteen and this is all at the same time as the government announcing prolonged or sarah here at home that's going to continue until at least twenty seventeen twenty eighteen and the chancellor announcing that there's going to be extra welfare cuts and an extra ten billion pounds slashed from the welfare budget along with cuts in every single other government department now i'm joined by john hillery who is the executive director of antipoverty charity water and want to join eleven years later seven. seventeen billion pounds down the line about money have been better spent elsewhere you could hardly really think of any worse way of spending the money as you say if you pointed out here in britain we're seeing enormous cuts to government spending and to the world

for budgets about twenty five billion pounds in total which actually it's almost the same as been spent in the war in afghanistan but in afghanistan itself the impact of the war has been absolutely disastrous it's one of the poorest countries in the world it's basically got one of the nodes life expectancies instance. mortality and it's lost ten years of its development prospects as a result of the war so yeah seventeen billion pounds badly badly strained. every government has a defense budget surely that spending can be justified in some way defense spending can be just after this is seventeen billion pounds over and above the existing british defense budget so it's money which they specifically use in afghanistan and that is money which they need to be accountable not just for the british people but also to the people of afghanistan and the people of pakistan who also suffer as we've seen great a regional instability as a result of the war what about the british public they've got austerity measures at

home that is set to last much stronger than first predicted how do you explain that spending to a public that's undergoing very difficult budget cuts i mean well that's absolutely right and even before the austerity program it was clear that over seventy percent of people in britain wanted the water be ended immediately or very very soon it's a completely unpopular war people in britain want to the troops out people in afghanistan also want the troops out and now we're being faced with these massive cuts on top of that people are really angry about the fact that the waters continue what the british people want to see in this i think is a proper resolution which will bring stability and security to the peoples of us going to afghanistan for the future and would give them an opportunity to develop to try to destroy the horrible legacy of invasion and occupation which they've lived with for the last thirty years now a teacher very much well that's what we've got and the government insists that the situation in afghanistan isn't going to deteriorate as soon as the troops pull out

but already the defense secretary has said that parts of afghanistan won't be under government control and so that means a lot more questions from the british taxpayers about the eleven years spent fighting the war and the twenty billion pound price tag for at. thank you for that. due to walk free from prison earlier than expected most courts was cut the jail term for the former tory . serving time for oil theft and money laundering. has the details the present terms for the two. were reduced to. prison penal code essential if there's hundreds of thousands of russian businessmen are believed to be serving behind bars for various financial crimes as

a result of the russian government have decided to soften somewhat its penal code when it comes to those financial crimes of course this case is no ordinary one it's one of the most high profile cases in recent years in russia back in early two thousand the government had accused the two former yukos oil partners of tax evasion yukos was then the largest oil firm in the country it went bankrupt its assets were taken over by row snapped and this has prompted many in the west to actually accuse the country of a politically motivated case these are charges that moscow force denies now before the two men had finished serving their sentences in two thousand and ten a moscow court had given them fresh prison charges this time over accusations of money laundering as well as the charge of stealing more than thirty billion u.s. dollars worth of oil despite this has become somewhat of a poster boy for the russian opposition which says that his continued imprisonment is evidence of the russian state's control over the judiciary despite all this of

course that the thursday appeal hearing the court had ruled that the men will be able to walk free by two thousand and fourteen lebedeff will be able to go around august and is expected to be released by october. the u.n. security council is demanding that israel hold sit settlement plans in the occupied west bank and these to receive them immediately to move to build housing in palestinian lands is seen as illegal under international law but israeli media however are reporting that more than three thousand extra homes have been approved in addition to the several thousand given the go ahead earlier this month honestly as more israeli officials say that they. build six thousand new homes this defies criticism from western powers who fear that the move will hamper an already faint hopes for a peace deal between israelis and palestinians you'll remember that it was just last month after the to be fact a recognition of palestinian sovereignty at the united nations that israel made its

new announcement in terms of settlement building it said that it would expand settlements in the occupied west bank as well as in east jerusalem and at that time there was international and quiet the point needs to be made that israel continues to build in i said defiance of international law and as well as of united nations resolutions so many critics are pointing out that is also assertiveness with settlements is part of the reason why it's becoming increasingly isolated by its most now partners primarily in europe but that's not to say that washington is also not losing patience the united states has said that it is deeply disappointed by israeli construction plans in an unpredictably sharp reaction the obama administration has softened the criticism of israel saying that these construction plans one counter to peace the point also needs to be made that makes demands generally israel will be holding parliamentary elections which is why many are suggesting that these a nonsmoker by the prime minister netanyahu are

a means of trying to garner up domestic support as well as change the reality on the ground one of the options that myth and you know and like minded people. creating a situation well by the number of certainly will be such a significant one that eventually the solution will be more or less let us get back to the sixty seven borders and let the settlers remain under the palestinian state rather than evacuate them to new areas which will be annexed to israel most of the international community see the settlement construction by tel aviv as illegal certainly the palestinians see it as a real obstacle to creating a viable capital in east jerusalem policy r.t. tel aviv. well there's been a mixed reaction over time magazine's decision to name barack obama person of the

year for a second time the u.s. president again the award for becoming what they called the symbol and architect of the new america but it isn't used for the u.s. the year is not shared by all americans many remain unconvinced wise actions including domestic matters such as gun control what is going to check out. they're choosing president obama as the person of the year second time the first time they gave him the title right after the two thousand and eight election as to someone who had the most influence on global affairs although at that time he hadn't had the time to exercise all that influence but then president obama also received the nobel peace prize in two thousand and nine ers shortly after his election although i guess at that point he hadn't made much peace in the world the award was seen as much more of an advance credit than and knowledge meant of actual achievements on the peace fronts later president obama went on to spend that credit sending more troops to afghanistan and carrying out regime change in libya under the arguable

banner war for the sake of peace as far as his person of the year titled critics argue president obama was time's choice by default their shortlist this year also included the egyptian leader mohamed morsi and the pakistani girl malala yousafzai who was shot by the taliban for advocating for women's education president obama may be the person of the year for the time magazine but for advocates of gun control in the u.s. he still has to earn that title president obama had a news conference where he was asked why no meaningful action has been taken on the gun control in the last four years of his presidency although one of his campaign pledges was a ban on assault weapons he basically said he had lots of other things to do including waging two wars and quote it's not like i've been on vacation he said those in the u.s. who suffered in numerous incidents of gun violence would probably not be satisfied

with such an answer but the president pledged to finally take more active steps in the coming months he says the administration will come up with a more definitive proposal on gun control but people have heard those words before and nothing happened and getting a semiautomatic weapon is not a problem in the u.s. adam lanza who killed twenty small children and. six adults at an elementary school last week fired from a semi-automatic bushmaster rifle it's a military style rifle a powerful weapon and its sales are on the rise in the u.s. in the last four years the market for such gardens grew thirty percent while staying stateside you can still be detained and held without trial if you're a u.s. citizen as we report on r.t. dot com. washington lawmakers are two crucial amendments to the national defense authorization act which would have protected the rights of americans. and better late than never the u.k. finally agrees to honor the british veterans of the arctic convoy which carried

crucial supplies to russia during world war two. spain says it has legal grounds and the power to prevent catalonia from holding a referendum on breaking away south of the region's nationalist leaders agree to form an u. separatist government and hold a public vote on going it alone r.k. a campaigner for european regional independence says catalonia is ready to be a sovereign state. as come from that the nation of civil society from from the steep descent that's only a week from two thousand and nine to two thousand and eleven. made it to the nation by organized. random. person only i like more than five hundred people. why they voted yes to get along at that allowed for a plus people scenario and allowed to kept abates about the nation thank you my

rights universal rights you know i told us all out to explain people about economic facts and about all the benefits that i think that but that it's money or they would benefit are so at this a scenario just create the vocalizing open. to the poor that would then be has been showing their last official results course actually yes well in the last election in the parliament. members of the parliament are four bands and they are willing to. referendum. shortly i will take on a tour of sochi as the russian black sea resort prepares to host the twenty fourteen winter olympic games stay with us.

it's perched atop a jog under view from the ball scrabble and stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city that chilled all of siberia for centuries it lost its economic importance even before it was bypassed by the chance i bear in the railway but the poles cremains a spiritual center. scenes like these are a yearly occurrence. implicity water to commemorate the baptism of jesus. in the fifteen eighties the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies the ball supposed to be their stronghold constructed on top of the city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian

fire was the oil of its time bringing in a third of all russia's state revenue but the balls location head of the for the russians are the russian crowd who led a revolt against the tsar and eight hundred twenty five known as the decembrists worse than hair and drove. there they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at least once they made it from paris to siberia but the city also served up some bitter irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is the office where nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole family had been exiled here they were fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or go outside themselves leaving this ordinary normal countryside lifestyle they even had thoughts of a skate but within the year the czar and his family would beat their.

leg since childhood for the america's always stood out from the spears he hates losing and has never missed a single training session he came first in everything be a swimming ballroom dancing or chest at the age of sixteen started to lift weights four years later he took on the bronze medal in weightlifting from the london paralympics. coming in third place at the olympic games was this. eric was that you could show a much better result of course that upsets you but i'm only twenty two for this week those are my first paralympic.